Full Grand Championship Details!

The AADL-GT 2006 Grand Championships are just under two weeks away, and if you're thirsty for details about the event, you're in the right place. The Grand Championships will happen Saturday, December 16th at the Downtown Library and will consist of three events: The Clan Cup Finals at 12:00 sharp, The Wildcard Tournament starting around 12:45, and then the Grand Championship Tournament itself beginning around 2:00-3:00 depending on wildcard turnout.

The Grand Championship Prize pool WILL contain a BRAND-NEW, HARD-TO-GET Nintendo Wii! Plus, a 2gb iPod nano, and a onyx black Nintendo DS. The champion, second and third place winners get to pick from the prizes in order. The Clan Members that emerge victorious from the Clan Cup will win the first-ever limited edition Clan Cup trophies, plus a small giftcard.

The Grand Championships will be broadcast live on CTN channel 18, so be sure to bring a signed Release Form if you haven't already. We don't yet know when the broadcast will begin, but it will likely begin during the wildcard event. Hope to see you there, and read on for full details about the tournament's new structure.

OK, first off, the Clan Cup. Similar to last year, your clan's rank will determine how many rounds you have to make it through to reach the final. First, all Clans in the Clan Cup must field at least a 4-member team. Subs will be allowed, but they cannot be members of another top 8 clan, and you can't replace a present Clan Member with a sub. The prizes will go to the members of the Clan who are present at the Clan cup, so if a sub plays, they win the prize. There will be a full set of 6 prizes for the winning Clan.

The Clan Cup will work like this: First, clans 5-8 will each send two 2-player teams to a set of two co-op mario kart races on Special Cup. We'll use our normal scoring, and the two clans that score the highest total points across those two races will advance to the next round.

Clan Cup Round 2 will have two teams from each of Clans 3 and 4 (Turtle Clan and the Pocket Rockets) face the two winners of the Mario Kart Round in 2 Super Smash Bros. Team Melee Battles, 3 stock, 4 minute. We'll shuffle pairings for the second round so that you won't face the same team twice. We'll count wins, and the two Clans with the most wins will advance to the next round. Clan Standings will break any ties.

We'll then be down to 4 Clans: WAH, Bros & Co, and the two winning clans from the previous round. These four clans will first play two rounds of Super Smash Bros Team Melee, and then two rounds of Mario Kart co-op race, and we'll total the points for the clan for all four matches (with a melee loss counting for 30 points instead of the usual 10, although I'm open to debate on that issue), and the top two Clans will advance to a surprise final game.

Got that? OK. Be sure to spread the word to your clans to COME EARLY and be ready for the Clan Cup Rounds to begin right at Noon!

Moving on to the Wildcard Tournament. First, to reiterate, you are qualified for the Grand Championship Bracket if you placed 4th or better in the finals of a single 2006 regular-season event (preseason doesn't count), or if you are in the top 64 overall on the leaderboard. Otherwise, the Wildcard tournament is your only shot at making it into the Grand Championship. Here's how both the Wildcard Tournament and the Grand Championship will be different from what we've done before: We will have no single-elimination matches. All elimination will be done based on overall score, and each round will consist of at least one 4-player Kart Race and one 4-player Melee Battle. We'll have the room set up with Mario Kart on stations 1-4, not in LAN mode, and Melee on stations 5-8. Both games will use the same modified scoring:

So, the Wildcard Tournament will start off with a qualification round with every player getting two races and two battles. The top 32 players will move on to another round of two races and two battles, then the top 16 will move on to another round of two races and two battles, and then the top 8 will advance to the Grand Championship. Understand? The big thing here will be that unlike any previous AADL-GT event, you will be able to choose your characters and karts, all of which will be unlocked. However, there will be three rules there: Karts will be picked in season leaderboard order (we'll have the seating reflect this), but you can't pick both identical characters (i.e. no picking both koopas or both toads), and the parade and pipe karts are banned.

We will have both Melee and Kart running simultaneously, so you'll basically have two matches on each side of the room for a given round of the tournament. We will have assigned seats for P1-P4 on the Mario Kart side of the room so that you'll have a good view of your part of the screen. This format will not only allow us to get lots of matches played quickly, but it will also make it so that a single loss won't likely knock you out.

All tiebreakers will be at my discretion and may involve ancient games. Muhahahaha.

The Grands themselves will work the same way, complete with leaderboard-based character & kart choices, with each round consisting of two races and two battles for each player and score-based elimination. Semifinals and finals round may be reduced to one round of each, but I hope to avoid that. This will decrease the excitement of the final match, but it should be more fair for everyone and a better measurement of your combined skill at Super Smash and Double Dash. The Grand finals will NOT be a surprise game.

Finally, just for bragging rights, here are the bonus values for Championship victories, as the final season leaderboard will include GC scores:

Comments

Submitted by tomcove6888 on Tue, 12/05/2006 - 2:48pm.

First comment!
Just wanted to do this... Gosh, I love free time in college.
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"OK, next year we're going to change the tournament name from AADL-GT to AADL-GR... "Goat Rodeo!!!" - Eli
5000th comment poster![gtlogo:VMC]

FFA smash doesn't necessarily take less skill, it takes more strategy. Unfortunately, that strategy is often hiding. It seems odd you'd complain about luck since 4 player kart allows drivers to choose their karts guaranteeing that they don't get unlucky in kart selection.
"TORTURIS EXUVIAS EUNT"

Few comments
1) Great format i think it is amazing
2)To decide the champion will you look back at how the person has done on his or her previous matches of the day that weren't in that round. Or will it soley be based on that round
3)In the clan cup when you are givng 30 points for a team melee loss. That makes no sense because everyone will have the same matches.
4) Also tiebreakers should be a game of one stock melee with your toes or marioKart blindfolded.
5)Also since there is a tie for 64th place are both of those people getting in?
6)Will the DS come with a game if so what?
7)Good Luck Everyone

Tp2, i see that you say that FFA is more strategy based, but just as you said, its just people running away, would you like to see people just run away for the championship (YAY, i won a wii because i could run away the best!!!)

also, i didnt say that 4 player kart is luck based, im just saying its not as fun as 8 player kart, i actually dont mind 4 players cuase i personally do better, but i prefer the chaos and the heart break of full 8 player mario kart

Certainly, that's something that I will add as soon as I can... But, despite me previous comment in this topic, I don't have unlimited free time, so I just got back from class, and once I finish dinner, I'll continue to work on the Wiki. If there's any other suggestions that you guys think that should be on the Wiki, post them here, and maybe, just maybe, we'll get a chance to get this back on the real Wikipedia.
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"OK, next year we're going to change the tournament name from AADL-GT to AADL-GR... "Goat Rodeo!!!" - Eli
5000th comment poster![gtlogo:VMC]

i think he said the clan cup winners will get small gift cards, and matt dont just assume we are gonna go in and crush everyone, im kinda nervous that WAH will let itself down, even though we would have to be the most talented clan

if i was betting, i would put my money on WAH, but BNC will be a very close second

@limabean- id like to but unfortunately fjw was right. My brother can if you want a sub, hes really good at smash and better at mario kart (compared to me and my friends) for who knows why because he never plays it. If you wanna look him up at the leaderboard his names gnato in 70th place cuz he only went to one tournament this season (too obsessed with runescape)
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OK I agree that the parade kart needs to be banned, but I think the pipe karts also need to be banned. The choosing of karts and characters otherwise is kind of cool.

Again Eli you have managed to change the rules just enough to make me have no clue how this will turn out. Although I can see certain people doing really well (see list) it's really hard to say with the shift in set-up. The 4 player kart is going to skew my playing style a whole lot, so I'm not confident I'll make the top 16. I actually don't mind the 30 points for a melee loss, it seems like a decent balancer.

wow, im 70% but whats with the lack of the roysters? you do know that Shin Oroachimaru made the final race last time and got 5th, and omega is also very good at mario kart, contrary to popular belief, the roysters are almost as good at mario kart as they are in melee, pretty tough to believe, eh?

I think this format sounds much, much better than last year's. I've never been able to bring myself to play "Shine Thief" since that horrible, horrible match last year...

My prediction is that We Are Hard will win the Clan Cup, but that The Foreign Exchange will take second. As for the Grands, I don't think it's clear who will come out on top; most of the other top players are expert at one game only, and decidedly not so at the other. Given Duck's balance of skills, though, as well as his second- and first-place finishes in the last two years, I think he has as good a chance as anyone to make the final four, and I expect to see a Royster brother.

UPDATE: WII in the House! Just for you, I camped out in a tent in front of the Belleville Walmart last night, and I now have, in my possession, 1 shiny new Nintendo Wii destined for the 2006 Grand Champion. (This is in addition to camping out in a tent in front of the Ann Arbor Toys R US (with Nemo) to get our own unit back on Launch Day). So, no giftcards required, the winner gets a Wii. And (although you guys know my fanboyitis runs deep) if you haven't played one yet, it is the most fun I've ever had with any game machine, and Twilight Princess is simply amazing, the true successor to Ocarina of Time that you cel-haters always wanted. But I digress, although I'd still love to see a Wind Waker sequel for Wii. I loved Wind Waker.

OK, to answer questions:

FJW: Yup, no mystery game for this years' final. They mystery game with big stuff on the line was pretty well repudiated last year, so this season, only Clan events have mystery games. If you'd like to argue for a mystery final (and you know I'd be willing to listen) come to the game and plan meetup Sunday, February 10th, 1:00, at the Pittsfield Branch.

Swordmaster: We will have some open play during the Clan Cup on stations not in use, but those matches will need to end quickly to keep the Clan Cup moving.

Also, I think I will allow your Clan to use a sub from a Clan below the top 8. That way, members of the 2nd-tier clans won't be denied an opportunity to feel what it's like to run with the leaders. =)

Bad Driver: I'm glad you like the format! Scores will start over each round, so dominating in the previous round won't give you a heads up. I decided to give 30 points to the losing team in Clan Cup Melee so that a loss (which would normally be 2nd place / 60 points using our scoring) won't be as good as 3rd place in a 8 player race or as punishing to your chances as the 10 points of a last place kart finish. I thought it was a good compromise, and it seems that there's agreement on that. I also like your tiebreaker idea, although I think we can all agree we don't want any gamer toes touching the controllers. Because of the tie, both 64th and 65th place are in, and sorry, but the DS does not come with a game.

johninabox: Sorry, that wasn't clear. You will be able to pick Characters and Karts in both the Wildcard and the Grand Championship.

ballooneater: I'd love to give such a great prize, but DS lites for Clan Cup winners ain't gonna happen this season. We gave out so much more at each round this season that I couldn't swing shuffles for the winning clan. You might be able to get 1/13th of a DS lite with your gift card, I guess; but even though the clan cup trophies are completely awesome (and I mean it, not in the 'completely awesome 10-year-old highlighter' sense) I suspect that they would have little cash value. They are, in a word, priceless. =)

limabean: OK, as I said above, subs from non-top-8 clans are OK. However, even though the grand prize giftcard is a moot point now, Gamestop is about the last place to find a Wii between now and the holidays. In all my searching for the Grand Prize Wii, I never even bothered to call a Gamestop or EB because they would get such pitiful shipments. Walmart in Belleville got 30 units last night, and I was #2 in line.

swain212: Depending on turnout (there may be a mention in the Ann Arbor News today), I still expect the Grands to wrap up around the usual time, between 5-5:30, maybe a little earlier if we have low turnout of prequalified players.

Duck: Excellent point, the Pipe Kart should be (and is now) banned too. I'm interested by your predictions, although I agree with other posters about a suspicious absence of Royster presence. At the beginning of the season they were struggling in the kart events, but man, have they ever improved fast. They are not to be dismissed, IMHO. It goes to show how quick you can improve if you have constant access to a worthy competitor. =)

Thanks for all the awnsers. The new logo looks awesome.
prediction wise i think duck did a very good job i would just smudge it a little.
Adding shin and omega at 65 % and lowering a few people. Remember if shin and omega get maybe third in their kart race and 1st in their melee that should move them on because that is a 2nd place average which is the top half

Sorry, swordmaster, we can't start the wildcard early. First, we can't run two events at the same time, and second, we need to give wildcards time to show up since once we start the event, no additional players can join.

Well I just estimated the likelihood (percents) of the top 16. I was just looking at how well balanced people have shown themselves to be, the ones on my list have proven to have at least moderate skills in both games. So people that haven't shown strong MK or Melee ability were left off the list. As stated before I'm unsure on the reality of the change in tournament rules effect on outcome. The 1st season went for a battle eliminations that effectively killed the chances of many players. Yet made it easier on myself and other battle oriented players; back then my driving skills were lousy, but I could pin a green shell almost no matter what. The second season had Leinad and Jerry come out of nowhere to claim prizes. So even if you didn't make my list you still have a chance, odds are someone outside my list will be in the final round.

Also since jerry was in the top 64 does that shift the leaderboard a little?

Hey everyone..i haven't posted on here in a while but i have some questions for Eli..soo for the finals the top 3 winners will be determined by Mario Kart? Mele? Super Game?..i think it should be a surprise game because it gives others a chance to win evern though it won't be me..and about clan cup...Top 6 or 7 clans get a chance to make it to finals? i wasn't sure about that. and finally everybody that thinks i'm horrible, i've been practicing several hours everyday just to compete and hopefully have a chance..so watch out guys..

Eli, are you by any chance willing to offer your camping out services to someone willing to pay you a bit extra for it? This is just a hypothetical, of course (unless you really are, in which case I'll gladly play, like, $50 extra or so).
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"OK, next year we're going to change the tournament name from AADL-GT to AADL-GR... "Goat Rodeo!!!" - Eli
5000th comment poster![gtlogo:VMC]

The person who wins the finals should theoretically be a good player in both of the games not necessarily be the best at either. The truth is that someone who is an excellent smash player and decent Mario Kart skills will probably win, in theory. Although I also applaud the idea of being allowed to choose our karts since I know what it's like to get stuck with the Bowser kart (It happened to me in the semi-finals and finals of round 4.).

I wasn't at the grands season 2, but I can say, somewhat confidently, that Leinad didn't grow up playing Pong or Root Beer Tapper.

No what will happen will be as follows:
1st TP2
2nd Doomblaze
3rd D-rex or 1 of roystrs
4th me or 1 of roystrs
You see there are plenty more good people but you need to be balanced to make it this far

Oh and SirDucksAlot 70%?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? 70?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!? I WOLUD GIVE MYSELF LIKE A 50% Chance TO GET INTO The Final ROUND! John has the right idea with 99%, oh and why is finklestein higher than me? First of all, I have like 1.5 times his points and i colud pwn him in both mkdd and melee (doubt in melee =P)
Oh and that Leinad coming from nowhere thing, you're completly right, the rules were changed so he could get in, then he got in a tiebreaker with someone because a person threw a match, and they switched it to mario kart for the tiebreaker (he's btter at mkdd). The the suprise game was one that he apparently grew up playing throughout his whole childhood. In my opinion, before anyone calls me lucky, take a look at Leinad's story.
Eli why is the Pipe Kart and Petey and Boo banned, they are not even the best characters, lol (because they can get any special)

I'm not too suprised about the Wii. Though, if I win it, or any prize at all, I'd be happy.
Btw, since some of the VMC havn't been showing up to the tornaments, our clan has fallen behind. I'll be a sub for anyone who may need one. I can tell you I'm good at Kart and I'm a fairly decent smasher, so, if you guys need a sub, choose wisely...I think MDidget said he needed a sub.

Oh, wait a second, I thought we we're 9th place. Nevermind, VMC is back in the game. Though, there is a very good chance that we may need a sub.

Oh Eli, if you read this in time, about the "you can choose your own characters", is the selection: "First to choose?", "dibs?", or "rock-paper-scissors?"
Most of the time when I'm playing party kart, everyone likes to pick my favorite character or not. I'm just wondering how we resolve this if it may happen.

As many of you might be able to guess already, I like to have a koopa in my kart. I assume that I am not alone in this, since most of the time my clan plays we all fight over the koopas, which means we now choose random karts. I think that the higher your score, the sooner you should get to choose, but I realize that I am offering a biased opinion.

Ah... Well, this reduces my chances of winning a prize in more than one way; you won't have to beat me in Melee OR Mario Kart if my clan first executes me for high treason.
Nonetheless, go to it with a will; I don't think I'll need it back until Grands, unless my clan gets together to practice before then.

Edit: What's special about the pipe karts??? Don't they have a lower maximum speed than most?

Monkeyman he doesnt want to argue so he is leaving it there.
Also for picking your characters there will be large chaos to get too your station first. I think a way to avoid this mass panic would be to let player 1 pick a character than p2 pick A character etc. until it reaches P4 where he or she will pick 2 players thanit will go to player 3 picking a player than player 2 and player 1 picks. So P1 picks first and last.

Ugo: Welcome back! I think all your questions are answered in my post at the top of the page, but to sum up, winners are determined by both kart and melee, no surprise final this year. Top 8 clans are in the clan cup.

Lain: Um, no. If you're already qualified for the Grand Championships, you can't play in the wildcard spots. Because you wouldn't be a wildcard. 8 hopefuls are going to get their chance to get obliterated by you veterans, you're just going to have to wait to find out who they are. Also, to eliminate any confusion, each member of the winning clan will receive a trophy and a $10 giftcard. I have 6 trophies and 6 giftcards. If you have clan members who aren't at the grands, you can have the extra trophies to give to them, but if there are extra gift cards, I will ask your clan to nominate your clan's MVP and second MVP who will get the extra $10 giftcard. Remember that the people who play for the winning clan in the clan cup get the prizes.

Tom: Don't you wish. I'm done camping out for this console. Besides, if you wish to hire me as a Wii Acquisition Consultant (or WAC), $50 gets you about 30 minutes.

Monkeyman: I think Duck made a good point about the pipe karts, but I have not banned petey and king boo. If you want to attempt to see around Petey's head, go for it. The biggest thing about the Pipe karts is that they lose very little speed from a hit but still have very strong other stats, a little bit too unfair. Like I said, this is the very first time we've done a tournament where Kart and Character choice is allowed, so we'll have to see how it goes.

EBD: I had originally thought that I would just let you guys fight it out for characters and karts, but after some careful thought, I've decided that TP2's admittedly biased suggestion is a very good one, especially since your leaderboard rank would otherwise have no effect on the Grand Championships once they began. So, while stations will still be randomly determined, seating at that station will be in leaderboard order and players will select their characters in order (so, p1 chooses, then p2, etc.). This will also let us know that p1 will always be the favored player in a match. However, the rule about not choosing both characters of a pair just to tie them up remains in effect.

i think Eli explained the character picking, but i am really against this picking character thing, do people just wanna see race after race of toad kart, toad kart, toad kart and toad kart?

of course not, i really think that the karts should be random, because unlike smash, there are some karts in mario kart that have a clear advantage EVERY TIME. plus, its much more exciting to see a bowser kart take down three toad karts than to see which person's toad kart is the best, random adds that extra bit of fun and gives everyone a chance (just like how random stages and items make smash more fun, and gives everyone a chance), so eli, please reconsider making the karts random, please?

why make the change now? why not wait until next season?

as for next season, i think we should stick with gamecubes until 2 tournament ready wii games are firmly established (i.e. MK for the wii and SSBB)

In smash there are some characters that are better than others. That is why I've never seen a Yoshi be played at a tournament. In theory all of the karts have their advantages, but the truth is that acceleration ended up being the most important stat, regardless of the programmers' original intentions.

you are exactly right TP2, some characters are better than others in smash, but each and every character has a completely different play style

as for mario kart, you just pick the kart with the best acceleration, and your chance of winning goes up by a whole bunch, because in kart, there is really only 1 or 2 playstyles are have a clear advantage above the rest, as opposed to smash

Picked characters decrease randomness, which you campaigned against earlier. Since there are only 4 players, every player will be able to choose a high acceleration kart. With random karts, someone could get stuck with the luigi kart or Bowser kart and have his chances of doing well cut in half.

thats exactly why, i am totally against races where everyone just uses toad kart, and i'm totally against super smash with everyone using high teir characters (thats why i use ICs)

i didnt campaign against randomness, i "campaigned" against the format we have here at the library. in smash, there are some stages where SOME characters have a CLEAR advantage (but they aren't banned, which doesnt make any sense), not so much in mario kart (the acceleration karts have a clear advantage on EVERY STAGE).

there is a difference between picking in mario kart (which allows everyone to choose the same kart, totally taking away the variety we have in the games, and plus, people wont be able to punch each other off anymore) picking in smash, however, adds variety to the game, hence swordmaster's jigglypuff, my ICs, ballooneater's mario, all characters considered not to be high tier but they have been played well.

in mario kart, no matter how well you play bowser kart, a toad kart will always have an advantage in an 8 player race

you see what im saying, im just saying that picking characters totally detracts from the overall experience of mario kart because it takes away the challenge of coping with different karts.

items and random stages are fun in smash but they decrease the fairness, and making character selection a game of luck to get a good stage to go along with their character, not so much in mario kart, no matter what kart you get, they will do equally well or bad on each stage, so the kart is the only thing that matters, not the stage.

Wow, just wow. The Luigi Kart happens to be my favorite kart and works perfectly with my playing style. Yes, most people play high accelerating karts, but frankly not everyone does. That's like saying everyone plays high tier characters, some people don't. Also given the fact that there are only 8 light characters and the chain chomp is horrible, I can't see more than 3 light karts in any race and if the first two players choose to, they can make it so that only they have light karts. But still high acceleration isn't everything particularly when you mini-turbo well. Light karts do well on Baby park and other high hazard stages but the longer the course is the less important acceleration is. Rainbow road almost removes acceleration from the equation which makes smaller karts suffer because they can't keep up. On any straight away the fastest karts will do better than acceleration karts. Plus this is a 4 player race not 8 player, it's not the same situation.

Direct quote - "i hope the finals will be 8 player mario kart and 1v1 smash, because 4 player mario kart isnt fun and FFA smash is way too luck based"

Duck, I dislike the Luigi kart because I think that it has all of the advantages of a heavy-weight kart except the weight, which I think is important. Basically, my problem with the Luigi kart is that it doesn't give the player the privilege to push others around that heavy weight karts have and also lacks the acceleration to catch up well. I agree that speed is more important on long courses, but I also think that because of the high number of blue-shells in LAN-mode acceleration becomes important for someone who tries to be in first.
I actually practice with the Luigi kart because I think it gives me the largest possible handicap.
I realize that we aren't playing LAN-mode, but I think that the number of blue shells is still pretty high.

stages like hyrule temple and other banned stages aren't banned because they give certain characters advantages, it's because they make the game impossible to win for slow characters

furthermore, kart selection is just like character selection, only problem is that in smash, people can play the same character, which you can't do in kart

and you're against non-random karts because it's not as fun?

let's play random characters, random stages, all items on high, all stages in smash then. it's basically what you're doing to kart. i'm amazed that the kart players are able to play so consistently given their random-kart situation. i actually can only play on two karts. luigi kart and one of those baby carriages

also johninabox, play kart with me and i'll play smash with you

and we can bring pickwick and lucky-fetus and we can play four player races and four player smash with items on. but bring a memory card because i only have a few things unlocked in kart

Yeah I know is doesn't have the weight (which is disappointing), but weight only matters when other people are around. Blue shells might bother you but I've never had a problem with them. Quick mini-turbos after a blue shell tend to replace any need for acceleration. I guess since when I'm in first I usually have a large lead (3+ secs), blue shells never really hurt me that much and I gained back the lost ground because of the pack effect. It's been a long time since I played a 4 player match but from what I can remember stars and blue shells were common for 4th place but I'm pretty sure both are a little less common than in 8 player races just because less items occur.

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